Secret Boss Mod

The retention rights for Cybertron were traded to the Frogs by the Classiest for 3.5k. I have logs to prove that Cybertron admitted that he would agree to play for the Frogs if his retention rights were traded. After the trade was completed and retention bought for Cybertron by the Frogs, Cybertron stated that he wouldn't play for the Frogs.

The trade will stay and the Frogs will be out 3.5k, but the Frogs will not be forced to take the 14k hit to retain him as the retention was made under false pretenses.

This decision comes from precedent with WhiteQueen and the Frogs last year. WhiteQueen was traded to the Frogs for 1k, but WhiteQueen was forum banned thereafter. The trade transaction was kept in place.

Cybertron will be tournament banned for lying about availability and willingness to play.

Secret Boss Mod

The retention rights for Iris were purchased by the BIGS. Iris stated to Funkasaurus that he may not be interested in playing this year but signed up anyway and tentatively agreed to be retained. Iris then later decided he did not want to play any longer, and Funk is OK with him quitting.

The BIGS will be refunded the 16.5k and Iris will not incur a tournament ban because: no other teams were involved, Funk is OK with losing the player, and it is before the auction has occurred.

Secret Boss Mod

ZodiacTheKid was originally infracted and then subsequently banned for accumulating two disrespected staff infractions. It was quickly learned that ZodiacTheKid was an alt account of the user Jeremy, and was thusly banned.

We have precedent with this kind of case with the Warhammer/make situation last year. This is the rule that was created at the time:

Any player found to have signed up on an alternate account in a team tournament will be banned as per the usual protocol, but the team will not retain the player from the original account nor receive compensation for the loss of the player.

Click to expand...

ZodiacTheKid/Jeremy will not be on the roster of the Classiest, and the Classiest will not be compensated for the loss. Last year the Warhammer account was able to be sold back at midseason for 3k; however, I've been told that that was an exception to the rule due to the Sharks roster at the time and its placement to the creation of the rule. Therefore, I'll read the created rule strictly and state that there will be no compensation to the Classiest.

Jeremy can sign up at midseason and be bid on by all interested teams.

Update: The Jeremy account has been renamed to Sinclair
Update 2: With the infractions transferred, the account will not be unbanned by the time midseason arrives, so the point is mostly moot.

Secret Boss Mod

Both players did not use the VM correspondence detailed in Aldaron's write-up closely at all, TV-Rocka better than -Frexa-. Because TV-Rocka cannot play on the weekend, just subbing out -Frexa- doesn't solve anything, so both players are forced to sub out.

Managers on both teams have 12 hours from this post to name a substitute or face an activity call.

Update: Revised to say that both teams have 24 hours to name a substitute.

Secret Boss Mod

In their XY OU match played on Pokemon Online's PO Lounge, High Impulse used a non-shiny Genesect with Extreme Speed. In-game this is an impossible scenario, but because of the lack of clarification and wording in my thread here (which made it seem like it was movepool-only illegalities), the fact that the match was played on PO and not PS (where on the latter the use of Extreme Speed automatically makes Genesect shiny, and on PO it does not, forcing the user to manually change), and the lack of impact on the course of the match, the match ruling will stay in favor of High Impulse.

I have added an addendum to my thread previously linked, however. In future matches, the use of a non-shiny Genesect with Extreme Speed, and other illegalities of the kind, will be grounds for immediate match disqualification and ruling in favor of the other party.

This is a bit unfortunate, but the literally only logical option here is to declare fatty the loser by timeout.

There are 4 options here:

1.) Give fatty the win if he had it 100% - he did not absolutely 100% have it, so cannot do this
2.) Give badass the win if he had it 100% - he did not absolutely 100% have it, so cannot do this
3.) See it is a timeout, and give fatty the loss and badass the win - timeouts almost always default to auto-lose, but there was some haziness due to a lack of notification from showdown, so up in the air at the moment
4.) See it is a timeout, notice the lack of notification, and declare a recreation of the battle at that point - explanation follows

Since neither 1 nor 2 is definitive, can't do either. This leaves 3 and 4. There is enough haziness in the fact that showdown did not show the 30 / 20 / 10 second remaining messages to not immediately default to 3, so, for the moment, we'll move on to 4. If we go with 4, we have to recreate the match. To recreate the match...I need fatty's team.

I do not have fatty's team. Fatty did not submit a team to either oglemi or me...meaning we cannot recreate this match. If we cannot recreate the match, I cannot do #4.

This leaves literally 1 option left...#3. Again, this decision is simply a matter of the dominoes of the logical puzzle falling...no judgment call here. Can't do 1; can't do 2; can't do 4 because no team. Default to 3.

This isn't directly related to the logic of this decision, but it is a subjective judgment call on why I don't even "feel bad" about it: though fatty didn't get the 30/20/10 seconds remaining message, it did say 40 seconds remaining, and he clearly took longer than 40 seconds. This wasn't a glitch in the sense that showdown timed him out whether he definitely had time remaining; it was a "glitch" in the sense that he was timed out after a 40 seconds remaining message was displayed, he took longer than 40 seconds, and showdown merely did not show the messages for how much time he had left. Yes, that sucks. But the glitch wasn't that he was timed out when he had time left; it was merely that it did not display how much time he had left after he only had 40 seconds left. If he had submitted his team, I would allow a battle recreation; however, he did not, and therefore we cannot recreate the battle.

Also, just to emphasize: NO, I WILL NEVER, EVER TAKE CHANNEL LOGS WITH WHATEVER "PROOF" YOU CAN MUSTER OF VALIDITY AS A PROXY FOR TEAM SUBMISSIONS.

badass gets the win due to timeout loss for fatty.

SUBMIT YOUR FUCKING TEAMS. The team submission is not only for disconnections...it is a general catch all to save you guys from acts of God as this apparently was...so SUBMIT YOUR FUCKING TEAMS.

This apparently needs to be spelled out for the idiots amongst us, so here we go.

Oglemi and I are also hosting this for free...meaning we have no obligation to take shit from anyone. If anyone wants to act like an idiot because he is yet another petulant child, he can (and his team can) and should fully expect to be banned and not be given any benefit of the doubt if you flame / disrespect in official venues.

I'm not sure if it is because LonelyNess is the community pincushion and took so much relentless shit as SPL host or if it is because Bloo and Iconic voluntarily took so much shit as hosts of wcop 2 years ago, but too many of you have this idea you can get away with whatever you want to say to the hosts...

Hint...you can't. Hint, no matter if Esteemed and Super Valuable and Important and Significant Users like Ginku believe it is "kindergarten shit", I will always forcefully go after people who give tournament hosts a hard time. I happen to be the host for WCOP and SPL, but I did the same when Ojama was giving Eo nonsense for Frontier, and I'll do the same for whatever else comes up.

Bottom line, don't be morons to the hosts. This should be an extremely easy concept to grasp but apparently Ginku and company cannot so I will explicitly spell it out.

Secret Boss Mod

Easy decision here, but I'm going to post about it for posterity. In their DPP match, K-12 DC'd vs 199 Lives pretty early in the battle. Neither side had it 100% won, but K-12 did not send in his team before the match. Thusly, 199 Lives is granted the win by default.

Secret Boss Mod

liberty32 either disconnected or left the match when Heist was in a better position to win. After 25 minutes liberty still did not reconnect anywhere, and liberty did not send in his team beforehand. Heist is granted the win by default.

Secret Boss Mod

Iconic disconnected against his battle against K-12 while playing on PO and it would not allow him to reconnect. It was in the final turns of the match and Iconic had a distinct advantage in the game (~90% chance to win). Because Iconic sent in his team beforehand and K-12 refuses to replay the match up to the disconnect, Iconic is granted the win.

Secret Boss Mod

I've been dealing with this all day so forgive my terseness in the ruling (times will be in my timezone).

make VMed ]V[ajin on Thursday at 11:25 PM asking when ]V[ajin would be available to battle. ]V[ajin didn't reply to make until 39 hours later at 3:08 PM, after having not signed onto the forums since the 24th of January. make came online that night and was on IRC for an hour after being told that it was early morning for ]V[ajin and he would be highly unlikely to play. ]V[ajin has been online all day today (Sunday), but it has been communicated in the past that make works on Sundays (and it is Super Bowl Sunday). make was on IRC prior in the week while ]V[ajin was not on at all up until Saturday, though he claims activity on PO.

Neither opponent provided times of availability.

Aldaron's guidelines are thus:

"If they don't contact at all on your VM wall up until 48 hours before the end of the round (note, I'm not going to take irc or sim messages as evidence due to how easily they can be doctored...so if you want to protect yourself, stick to the VM messages), then you obviously have activity win justification."

]V[ajin did not reply before the 48 hour end of the week time window (only having replied with 33 hours left in the round). make did not reply on the forums when he was on last night with any time that he would be available but did look for him on IRC. ]V[ajin did leave another VM 15 hours after his first, but it doesn't provide any useful information.

Forum activity counts far more heavily than anything to try and get battles completed. Because ]V[ajin did not sign on from the 24th to Feb 1st at 3PM and the lack of activity of ]V[ajin on IRC (there is no evidence of him being on IRC until Saturday), I have to give the activity win to make who has been on the forums and on IRC.

I'm going to spell this out here: 3rd party attempts to try and schedule battles need to be avoided as the sole means of communication. Using your managers to try and schedule battles should only be used as a supplement to the forum and IRC activity of the user in question. It's clear that BKC and bro fist made an effort to get the battle completed, but I do not see that effort from ]V[ajin (apart from today/Sunday) and I do from make.

Secret Boss Mod

The match between ]V[ajinTupacZ and make has been nullified. In further discussion, a consensus was reached among the TDs that an extension is not a precedent that we want to set for SPL. Because neither team followed Aldaron's activity rules, with no direct discussion among both players leading into the weekend, there was a high probability of the match not being completed.

There were also concerns regarding the managerial veto vote and the intentions of the managers voting, which will be addressed in the following post.

Secret Boss Mod

Due to the circumstances surrounding the latest veto vote and concerns with future applications of how the veto vote is conducted, particularly the issue of managers voting only to better their team and not voting directly for best tournament policy course of action, a policy change for how veto votes are conducted will be enacted. Instead of the managers voting on vetoes, the TD team will reach a consensus amongst themselves on a ruling made by myself or Aldaron. This includes vetoes on sellbacks and other major administrative decisions.

Vetoes are still initiated by the managers and their opinions will be solicited prior to a vote taking place.

Secret Boss Mod

The sellback on Ray Jay was brought up for veto. After discussing with BKC and doing my own research of the situation, the situation is more akin to Ray Jay having quit than it is to inactivity, of which there is a high level of IRC inactivity as well (signing on for roughly a half hour at any one time and not talking much). Ray Jay simply doesn't have the time with 2 jobs + 20 credit hours to participate in the tourney. The Sellback will go through.

RE: [K-12] The Madchine and -Frexa- Veto

The sellbacks on [K-12] and -Frexa- were brought up for veto by two teams. This is the one that caused me to take so much time discussing and trying to figure out how to handle this situation and future sellback situations. I talked to a lot of managers and TDs about how to define inactivity and what we want to count as a sellback opportunity. I'll write up something to put in the OP of the commencement thread that better defines what is grounds for sellbacks following this.

While [K-12] has completed the battles he's been put up for, the team had to do all of his scheduling for him all 3 weeks he battled (his most recent battle against iconic, iconic stated he was impossible to schedule with). This, on top of extremely high IRC inactivity, is grounds enough to allow a sellback.

-Frexa-, while not as inactive as [K-12], does have very high IRC inactivity and has problems scheduling matches. His behavior is also very non-conducive to team camaraderie, and with those two factors combined, is grounds enough to allow a sellback.

Secret Boss Mod

The sellback on Treecko was brought up for veto. Future inactivity claims are an iffy area. Treecko has picked up a new job that will cut into his activity for the future, possibly so much that it'll make battles difficult to complete, but because the cut isn't so much that Treecko won't still be able to come on IRC periodically, nor will it be as much as say SoulChef's, where he wouldn't be on at all, there isn't grounds enough to allow a sellback. The veto is carried.

Secret Boss Mod

Atticus decided that he wants to play at midseason. He will be placed into the player pool and be eligible to be bid on by all teams. The Team Raiders name Hugendugen as their second assistant manager in his place.

EDIT: This is a one-off exception, the future implications for how teams pick assistant mangers to game the money system at midseason is too negative to allow this to happen beyond this case. I do not feel that there were any sorts of ulterior motives to try and game the system in this case which is why I'm allowing it.

Secret Boss Mod

A veto was brought up against the Choice Specs sellback. Initially it appears that Choice Specs is active, having a recent sign-on date for the forums and IRC. However, after I asked a multitude of the managers the question: "would you consider someone inactive if they frequently sign-onto IRC but don't say anything?" the most common response I got was: a) only if they've failed to complete their battles and b) if the managers have attempted to integrate them into the team chat and the player remains mute.

Both of the latter scenarios have occurred, the former with Choice Specs being subbed in Week 3 after assuring makiri he'd complete the battle and then subsequently disappearing and being forced to be subbed out last minute.

This, combined with only a total of 27 lines appearing in the team chat over a course of 5 weeks (including lines of joins and timeouts), with a multitude of logs presented as evidence (makiri has access to the team's channel logs 24/7 combined with -tsunami-), I'll allow the sellback to go through.

Secret Boss Mod

Once a bid is made in the midseason auction, you are committed to that bid. You can't backtrack during the live auction, and for all intents and purposes the midseason auction is also live, just at a significantly slower pace.

Secret Boss Mod

It was recently discovered that a user, hiding under an alias, leaked reyscarface's team during his match with make. Reliable evidence from IP addresses from PO and the forums identifies this user as Dice. Leaking teams is absolutely unacceptable and unsportsmanlike behavior, and the fact that Dice used an alias to conceal his identity to do so makes it apparent that he was aware that such behavior was malicious. He will be banned from SPL for six weeks, which carries through from week 6 until the end of the season. Additionally, he has been infracted for unsportsmanlike conduct. Anyone who commits similar offenses will be subject to the same punishment at the minimum, possibly worse depending on the severity.

This is direct precedent and wording from SPL 4's mostwanted/LUST decision.

EDIT: Upon further evidence, the ban will be reduced to 3 weeks, and Dice will be allowed to play week 8. If you do something wrong, PM me immediately admitting whatever you did, the likelihood of a punishment drops significantly the closer to the time of the incident.

Secret Boss Mod

Both were available nearly every day of the week, but their time zones didn't allow for an opportunity to meet. A double sub was agreed upon by both teams. Froggy subs in for DestinyUnknown and Ace Emerald subs in for kokoloko.

Secret Boss Mod

In the XY OU match between dragonuser and Valentine, dragonuser disconnected at the end of the battle. Log of the battle. The only Pokemon left on Valentine's team was Landorus, which would have been outsped and OHKOed by Hidden Power Ice (switched into SR twice, and even if it survived, dragonuser still had 3 more Pokemon alive). dragonuser did send in his team before the battle, and because the game was 100% won by him, the match is ruled in his favor.